My goal with this project was to build, as cheaply as possible, a high-power 8-core folding rig. I opted for server hardware because some very powerful hardware is available on the secondhand market for next to nothing. However, it's all currently good for nothing until I get it up and running.

I'm having some issues getting my intel S5000PAL dual-socket 771 motherboard to post. I've installed a matched pair of Xeon L5420 2.5ghz quad cores and 2GB of FBDIMM DDR2 667 into the board. I am currently powering the rig with a 300w desktop PSU with a redundant 212w 12v PSU for the 8-pin p4 connector (I have used this config before for video cards and know it works). Currently testing on-bench, so chassis is not the issue, and powering on by raking the leads.

Fans spin, does not display from the onboard VGA, blue LED by VGA output does not light, diagnostic LED's do not light, not hooked to speaker so no way of knowing beep codes (Intel's documentation, oddly, does not provide a pinout for the front panel connector, not sure where on it I could connect a speaker). Some LED's do light on the board so I know it is receiving power.

Before it's mentioned, I have considered +5vsb as a possible culprit. The literature for the motherboard states that the power supply must provide at least 3.5a on the +5vsb rail or the board will not post. The one I am using provides 3a +5vsb. Not knowing much about server boards, I don't know how significant this .5a is, and I don't have any PSU's that put out 3.5a, so I'm not sure what to do to test this. Could I wire in a 5vdc 3.5a wallwort to that circuit to test it?

I know, I know, I'm breaking all the rules. A desire to do this on the cheap has led me down the path of some serious diy-ing. Hopefully there's some obvious thing I've overlooked that will get this board to post.

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